p— --^ 



The Pleasure of 
Reading the Bible 



By Temple Scott 




Class _ 
Book. 



a^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



The Pleasure of 
Reading the Bible 

By Temple Scott 




New York 

Mitchell Kennerley 

1909 



Copyright IQOg by 
Mitchell Kennerley 

3^ 



Press of J. J, Little & Ives Co. 

East Twenty-fourth Street 

New York 



248852 



^ 




THE PLEASURE OF 
READING THE BIBLE 

HE Bible is not one book; it is 
a library of books; a literature 
in itself. It is the ancient liter- 
ature of the people of Israel, embodying 
the best exercise of the creative imagina- 
tion in poetry, romance, history, oratory 
and prophecy, of the people who believed 
themselves to be the chosen people of 
God. It is also the ethical code of both 
Jews and Christians, and the source of 
rabbinical exposition and Church The- 
ology. In dealing with this book, how- 
ever, as a means for giving pleasure, I 
must disregard its authoritative value 
for religion or theology. The religious 

[1] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

emotion is not primarily pleasurable; 
nor is theology literature. The purpose 
of religion is directive to conduct; it is 
based on the existence of a definite re- 
lation between the individual and an ac- 
cepted objective ideal. Pleasure is di- 
rective to nothing; it is the emotion 
experienced from a freedom from any 
relation, when the individual is most 
himself. The two, therefore, are anti- 
thetical. This is not, however, to say 
that the religious man cannot experience 
pleasure, or that the man of pleasure 
may not be deeply religious. Each can 
be the other ; but, in being each, he is not, 
for the time being, the other. The Ser- 
mon on the Mount can be read for the 
purpose of fortifying a faith in Christ; 
but it can also be read for the sake of 
the beauty of its literary form, its noble 
language, its suggestive influence on the 

[2] 



READING THE BIBLE 

mind for cherishing an inspiring ideal. 
The pleasure from this is the purest and 
most satisfying of all pleasures, because 
it affirms and fulfils the self. 

When I speak of the Bible I mean 
the English translation of the Hebrew 
Scriptures and the Greek Testament. 
The translators of these writings tapped 
the purest springs of the English lan- 
guage. Whether or no they rendered 
the exact meanings of the original words 
of the Hebrew and Greek texts is, in this 
connection, of small matter. As it has 
been given us, in the Authorised and 
Revised Versions, the Bible is the noblest 
monument of English w^e possess ; a book 
of magnificent language embodying the 
aspirations of men and women for an 
ideal to be cherished as an abiding influ- 
ence on life. 

It is the reading of this book for the 
[3] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

sake of the pleasure to be derived from 
the reading that I am now m^ging; and 
I am urging this because, in the first 
place, the pleasure is purifying and, in 
the second place, because I believe we are 
losing that freshness of outlook and that 
child-like naivete which are so essential 
to pure enjoyment, and which are espe- 
cially essential to the reading of the 
Bible. Our Puritan forefathers had 
these qualities. When the Bible was first 
given to them it became for them a uni- 
versal solvent, a comfort and a joy. 
What the discovery and the translations 
of the Greek and Latin classics did for 
the Renaissance, the translation of the 
Bible did for the Reformation. It 
brought about a new birth, a re-awaken- 
ing of men's spirits. Men and women 
knew each other again, and joyed in the 
knowledge. An ideal was revealed which 

[4] 



READING THE BIBLE 

each could cherish in his own soul; and 
a new language was in the people's 
mouths : 

" Come unto me all ye that labour and are 
heavy-laden, and I will give you restJ*^ 

" For ye shall go out with joy, and he led 
forth with peace; the mountains and the hills 
shall break forth before you into singing, and 
all the ti^ees of the field shall clap their hands,'' 

'^Search me, God, and know my heart: 
try me, and know my thoughts: and see if 
there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead 
me into the way everlasting.'' 

" Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of 
the Lord, make straight i/n the desert a high- 
way for our God. Every valley shall be ex- 
alted, and every mountain and hill shall be 
made low; and the crooked shall be made 
straight, and the rough places plain; and the 
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all 
flesh shall see it together." 

" God made not death; neither delighteth 
He when the living perish. For He created all 
things that they might have being; and the 

[5] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

generative powers of the world are healthsome^ 
and there is no poison of destruction in them 
. . . for righteousness is immortal.'^ 

'' Blessed are they that hunger and thirst 
after righteousness: for they shall he filled. 
. . . Blessed are the pure in heart: for they 
shall see God.^' 



The compelling power precipitated 
from words rightly placed is enough in 
itself to make converts. The mind is 
lifted by the beauty of the language and 
placed on the high road to faith: the 
pleasure has paved the way. To men 
and women, "looking before and after 
and pining for what is not/' such words 
as I have quoted must have come like the 
sound of refreshing waters to the thirsty 
traveller. They carried a music in them 
that charmed quite apart from the com- 
forting message they bore. The people 
marched to the music, they fought to 

[6] 



READING THE BIBLE 

the sound of it, and they died with it 
ringing joyously in their ears, the while 
their souls were dancing to it. Unhap- 
pily, to later generations, the freshness 
of the music wore off; the message alone 
was heard, and heard without the music, 
robbed of its virgin vivifying beauty. 
Teachers then became fanatics; soldiers 
dogmatics; and the people spiritually 
barren. Science and trade, with their 
siren voices, led to the worship of false 
gods where beauty is not; men fought 
for wealth and killed each other for a 
creed. Beauty fled, a hunted thing, to 
dwell in lonely places, and now the music 
of the Bible is rarely heard at all. Even 
where, in some quiet spot, a sincere shep- 
herd may be found piping to his flock, 
his voice is often uncouth, and his fin- 
gers have not been taught the cunning of 
their use. What we too often hear are 



THE PLEASURE OF 

brazen-mouthed teachers blatantly repeat- 
ing the words; but the noise that comes 
from them is that of sounding brass, as 
if they were counting the coins of their 
wage — the harp and the psaltery are no 
more. Yet can I well imagine a Salvini 
in the pulpit speaking the words of the 
Bible in such fashion as to put a tongue 
in every sense and set the hearts of his 
hearers again dancing to the organ 
music : 

" Every valley shall he exalt ed, and every 
mountain and hill shall he made low; and the 
crooked shall he made straight, and the rough 
places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall 
he revealed.'^ 

" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
the water s.^^ 

*^ Sing, heavens: 
And he joyful, O earth; 
And hreak forth into singing, mountains; 
For the Lord hath comforted his people, 
And will have compassion upon his afflicted.'*^ 

[8] 



READING THE BIBLE 

Why are not ministers of religion 
more generally taught the art of reading 
this Bible aloud, that its language might 
be listened to and its music be made 
known in all its many tones of exquisite 
sound? It is an education devoutly to be 
wished for. 

Biblical criticism and modern science 
may have settled this or that fact. The 
story of the creation as we read it in 
Genesis may or may not appeal to the 
sophisticated reason of the day; but the 
reader of this story, if he is to know its 
real pleasure-giving power, must deal 
with it in quite a different fashion from 
that of the critic. It will be sufficient for 
him that the writer of the story believed 
it; and by the writer I mean the transla- 
tors just as much as I do the author of 
the Hebrew original; for only because of 
the influence of such a belief can I ac- 
[9] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

count for the excellence of the later ex- 
pression. It is the excellence born of 
sincerity, a sincerity that is stamped 
everywhere in the Bible, and that makes 
its language so arresting and so appeal- 
ing. 

" In the hegtnnmg God created the heavens 
and the earth. And the earth was without 
form, and void; and darkness was upon the 
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters. And God said, 
Let there be Light: and there was Light. And 
God saw the Light that it was good: and God 
divided the Light from the Darkness. And 
God called the Light Day; and the Darkness 
he called Night. And the evening and the 
morning was the first day.^^ - 

The arresting impressiveness lies in the 
telling simplicity of the language that 
holds the poet's imaginative thought 
amply and completely: not a drop is 
spilt. Out of this telling simplicity 
comes a fulfilling music of words in- 
[10] 



READING THE BIBLE 

evitably placed that soothes the ear: 
" And darkness was upon the face of the 
deep. And the spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters." The words 
with their music send us feehng with 
Wordsworth — 

" A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused. 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns^ 
And the round ocean and the living air. 
And the blue shy, and in the mind of man: 
A motion and a spirit, that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought. 
And rolls through all things.'^ 

With what a fine reiteration does this 
same sense steal over us in reading of 
God's covenant with Noah! How nobly 
simple is the language of the poet's child- 
like naivete of intimacy, expressing his 
own soul's relation with nature and na- 
ture's God! 

[11] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

*' And God said. This is the token of the 
covenant which I make between me and you 
and every living creature that is with you, for 
perpetual generations: I do set my how in the 
cloud, and it shall he for a token of a covenant 
hetween me and the earth. And it shall come 
to pass, when I hring a cloud over the earth, 
that the how shall he seen in the cloud: And I 
will remember my covenant, which is hetween me 
and you and every living creature of all flesh: 
And the waters shall no more become a flood 
to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in 
the cloud: and I will look upon it, that I may 
remember the everlasting covenant.^^ 

God was very real to this writer, as real 
to him as the spirit that " rolls through 
all things '^ was to Wordsworth. The 
personification is the poet's way of mak- 
ing his thought visual so that his readers 
might be, with him, in the same living 
relation to it. The rainbow in the cloud, 
coming as it did with the cheering light 
of the smiling sun, spoke to him of di- 
vine clemency after storm; filled him 
[12] 



READING THE BIBLE 

with the benignancy of the quiet, cool 
atmosphere after summer's heavy show- 
ers, and coloured an imagination tran- 
quilised after the fear from the raging 
elements. It became the symbol of a 
covenant between God and man, of se- 
curity and life. 

In the art of story-telling the writer of 
the human tale of Joseph and his breth- 
ren has very rarely been surpassed. The 
narrative opens simply and moves along 
gently, reaching its climax of emotion 
by the very force of the situation 
brought about. It is nowhere strained, 
nowhere marred by attempts at the 
grandiose or pathetic. It is a delightful 
example of the power of sincerity in the 
telling of a tale. Who can read un- 
moved Joseph's final words, when he re- 
veals himself to his brothers? ''I am 
Joseph: doth my father yet live? " But 
[13] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

it is all so simple, so direct and so finely 
inevitable in its simplicity and directness. 
The splendid imagery of Jacob's fare- 
well words to his sons is another instance 
of the wonder-working literary art of 
the Biblical writers. It is an appeal, a 
benediction, a touching of spirits to fine 
issues, a father's prophetic insight into 
his children's characters, and all couched 
in noble words nobly ordered. It reads 
like an ode addressed to the founders of 
a new nation: 

" Reuberiy thou art my first-born, 
My might, and the he ginning of my strength; 
The excellency of dignity, and the excellency 

of power. 
Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. 

Hf i^ at 

" Simeon and Levi are brethren; 
Weapons of violence are their swords. 
O my soul, come not thou into their council; 
Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou 
united; 

[14] 



BEADING THE BIBLE 

For in their anger they slew men^ 
And in their self-will houghed oxen. 
Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; 
And their wrath, for it was cruel: 
I will divide them in Jacob, 
And scatter them in Israel. 

'^ Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: 
Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine ene- 

mies; 
Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee. 
Judah is a lion's whelp; 
From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: 
He stooped down, he couched as a lion. 
And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up? 
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet. 
Till he come to Shiloh, 
Having obedience of the peoples. 
Binding his foot unto the vine. 
And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; 
He hath washed his garments in wine. 
And his vesture vn the blood of grapes: 
His eyes shall be red with wine. 
And his teeth white with milk.'* 

From such a stock were born the tribes 
who founded a new nation and ordered a 
[15] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

new commandment. Is it any wonder 
that they did great deeds and saw vi- 
sions? Who shall dare hope to win 
against men who walk with God, and see 
their ideals in all living things, and who 
make the ideal appear in the work of 
their hands? This was the spirit with 
which Palestine was nationalized; it was 
the spirit in which the great mission 
bearers conquered. It is the spirit in 
which alone abiding work can be accom- 
plished. It is the power that lies in all 
noble expressions, and gives meaning 
and value to all literature. Poets have 
made more heroes in the flesh than they 
have pictured in their language. That 
is what they are for — through noble lan- 
guage to attune hearts and inspire minds 
to doing nobly and being noble. Other- 
wise literature has no place in life. I go 
back in thought and find the solution of 
[16] 



READING THE BIBLE 

England's greatness in the past and 
America's foundation in the present to 
the moving influence of this Enghsh 
Bible on our Puritan forefathers. It 
was a trumpet-blast calling on them as 
the hosts of the Lord to fight the battles 
of the Lord ; it was a revelation of man's 
equality in the sight of the Lord; it was 
a realization of a living ideal by which 
men might come to live in peace and joy 
together; and it was also a glorious mes- 
sage of hope. 

" The people that walked in darkness have 
seen a great light; they that dwelt in the land 
of the shadow of deaths upon them hath the 
light shinedJ"^ 

The light that shined on the people of 
England in King James's and King 
Charles's days came from this Bible. 
Life, because of it, took on new and 
lovely colours, and men braced them- 
[17] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

selves to live it anew. What they had 
once dared as barons they now dared as 
yeomen; and the fathers who dared 
King Charles bred sons who dared King 
George. Thus does literature justify 
itself. 

What must have been in the hearts of 
the children of Israel as they listened to 
Moses' song, on the eve of his death, 
when in sight of the Promised Land? 

** Give eaVy ye heavens, and I will speaJc; 
And let the earth hear the words of my mouth: 
My doctrine shall drop as the rain. 
My speech shall distil as the dew; 
As the small rain upon the tender grass. 
And as the showers upon the herb: 
For I will proclaim the name of the Lord. 

^' For all his ways are judgement: 
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity. 
Just and right is He.'* 

Do these same children of Israel hear 
[18] 



READING THE BIBLE 

these words now? Does their music make 
glad their spirits? Surely, if words mean 
anything, these words mean the same to- 
day that they meant thousands of years 
ago! God is still a God of faithfulness, 
if we remain true to our ideal. He is still 
without iniquity, if we keep our own na- 
tures clean. He remains just and right, 
so long as we live justly and rightly, 
each to the other. But we have missed 
the pleasure of reading this Bible, and 
no longer hear its inspiring music. I 
must believe that we have misunderstood 
this wonderful book; that we have al- 
lowed ourselves to be led astray and so 
lost the sense for pure enjoyment. If 
we have read the letter we have been alto- 
gether blind to the spirit — ^the spirit of 
Beauty, which is in the Bible as it is in 
the Iliad, as it is in the Divine Comedy, 
as it is in Shakespeare, in Milton, in 
[19] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

Keats, in Wordsworth, and in all great 
manifestations of literary art. 

The conforming Jew reads the Psalms 
every Sabbath day, until he has learned 
them by rote. They appear in his daily 
prayers and reappear in the devotional 
exercises on festival and fast days. He 
can chant them by number, and recite 
them at command. Has he accomplished 
more than a feat of the memory? Has 
the poet's music stirred his soul to finer 
impulses through purer pleasure? Let 
his life answer the questions. But the 
same questions may be asked of the 
Christian also. The truth is we have 
spoiled our taste for this splendid litera- 
ture by making its reading a task instead 
of a life-giving delight. When the child 
at school is compelled to learn by rote 
Wordsworth's '' Lucy Gray," or Shelley's 
" Ode to a Skylark," or Keats's " Ode 
[20] 



READING THE BIBLE 

to a Nightingale," or a hundred lines 
from Goldsmith's "Deserted Village/' 
the child cannot possibly see the reveal- 
ing beauty in these poems. Its mind is 
centered on quite a different object, the 
object of accomplishing an ordered ex- 
ercisCc For the child to see beauty it 
must come on beauty, so to speak. 
Beauty must startle it into an awareness 
of something strange in its experience. 
Then will the child's curious soul be 
drawn to the revelation, and it will never- 
more forget the meeting. In exactly the 
same way all great literature must be ap- 
proached — gently led to delightful sur- 
prises. If the mood be not upon us it is 
wiser to leave the reading alone. " Soft 
stillness and the night become the touches 
of sweet harmony." Let the right at- 
mosphere be made and the right mood 
realized before you listen to the poet's 
[21] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

songs. Then will such a psalm as the 

nineteenth lift your spirit on self -born 

wings : 

" The heavens declare the glory of God; 
And the firmament showeth his handiwork. 
Day unto day uttereth speech. 
And night unto night showeth knowledge. 
There is no speech nor language; 
Their voice is not heard. 

" Their line is gone out through all the earthy 
And their "words to the end of the world. 
In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. 
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his 

chamber. 
And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his 

course. 
His gomg forth is from the end of the 

heavens, 
And his circuit unto the ends of it; 
And there is nothing hid from the heat 

thereof. 

" The law of the Lord is perfect, restorvng the 
soul; 
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making 
wise the simple. 

[22] 



READING THE BIBLE 

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoici/ng 
the heart: 

The commandment of the Lord is pure, en- 
lightening the eyes: 

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for- 
ever: 

The ordinances of the Lord are true, and 
righteous altogether. 

** More to be desired are they than gold, yea, 
than much fine gold; 
Sweeter also than honey and the droppings of 
the honeycomb.'^ 

Or this exquisite confession of God's 
protective influence, as embodied in the 
twenty-third Psalm: 

" The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 
He maJceth me to lie down in green pastures; 
He leadeth me beside the still waters. 
He restoreth my soul: 

He guideth me in the paths of righteousness 
for his names^ sahe. 

" Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, 

[23] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; 
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. 

" Thou preparest a table before me in the pres- 
ence of mine enemies; 

Thou hast anointed my head with oil; 

My cup runneth over. 

Surely goodness and loving-kindness shall 
follow me all the days of my life; 

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord 
for ever.^^ 

The poetry of devotion must be gently 
dealt with, otherwise we are in danger of 
adulterating its fine aroma. The poet's 
mood must be our mood, or we shall alto- 
gether miss the music. The hour that 
fits Burns's " The Jolly Beggars " is not 
the hour for Tennyson's '' In Memo- 
riam/' and the mood meet for the story 
of Samson and Delilah shuns the Ser- 
mon on the Mount. The Bible must be 
treated fairly, as we would any other 
work of accepted literature. One need 
not read at all if the ear be not inclined. 
[24] 



READING THE BIBLE 

If the singing of songs is the natural 
demand, then sing songs. We are no 
longer children to do this or that at a 
bidding. It were well that children were 
also dealt with in a proper fashion. It 
is unseemly to force or be forced, and 
unjust to your author. When we shall 
have learned to be less familiar and more 
courteous to the Bible we shall not only 
value it with livelier discrimination, but 
the book itself will yield to us, more and 
more benignantly, the fine enjoyment 
of its beauty. 

Rich as the Bible is in poetry of de- 
votion, it is as rich in lyrical poetry. The 
Book of Psalms is full of lyrics, and the 
Song of Solomon is an entire series of 
love lyrics. These latter are exquisitely 
beautiful : 

" / am a rose of Sharon, 
A lily of the valleys. 

m * ^ 

[25] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

** As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood. 
So is my beloved among the sons, 
I sat down under the shadow with great de- 
light. 
And his fruit was sweet to my taste. 
He brought me to the banqueting house, 
And his banner over me was love, 

" Stay ye me with raisins, refresh me with 
apples; 
For I am sick from love. 
Let his left hand be under my head. 
And his right hand embrace me. 



" The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh. 
Leaping upon the mountains, 
Skipping upon the hills. 
My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: 
Behold, he standeth behind our wall; 
He looketh in at the windows; 
He glanceth through the lattice. 
My beloved spake and said unto me. 
Arise up, my love, my fair one, and come 
away. 

*' For, lo, the winter is past; 
The rai/n is over and gone; 

[26] 



READING THE BIBLE 

The -flowers appear on the earth; 

The time of the singing of birds is come. 

And the voice of the turtle is heard in our 

land; 
The fg'tree ripeneth her green figs. 
And the vines are in blossom; 
They give forth their fragrance. 
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away J" ^ 

These songs of love between a husband 
and wife must be read in their complete 
sequence to enjoy their pulsating melody. 
Whatever secondary interpretation the 
criticism of theologians may oifer by 
way of explanation, the poems must con- 
tinue to appeal because of the response 
they find in every true lover's heart. 
'' Many waters cannot quench love, 
neither can floods drown it." 

The writers of the Bible possessed a 
gift which few modern writers possess; 
they had the power to express the phi- 
losophy of life as literature. The Book 
[27] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

of Job is a masterly dramatic allegory, 
the language of which rises to the highest 
form of poetical expression. The Prov- 
erbs of Solomon may be arranged, as 
Professor Moulton has arranged them, so 
that they form sonnets. He has also di- 
vided the Book of Ecclesiastes into es- 
says, epigrams, sonnets, and " wisdom 
clusters." But the Book of Job stands 
supreme, among its kind, in all literature. 
We shall best accept it as the poetic trag- 
edy of a noble mind struggling to find a 
reasonable basis for faith in God's divine 
judgments and finding peace at last in 
a realization that faith is better than 
knowledge and is the profoundest wis- 
dom the human soul can attain. 

Job had been a wealthy man. He 

feared God and walked in the ways of 

righteousness. Suddenly, in one single 

day, ruin came upon him. He lost his 

[28] 



READING THE BIBLE 

flocks, his camels, his home and his fam- 
ily. He barely had time to realize the 
calamities that had befallen him when he 
himself was afflicted by a loathsome dis- 
ease. He became an outcast and a 
dweller with the dogs on the village ash- 
mound. As he lived there wondering 
why God had thus punished him, his 
friends came to argue with him by way 
of explaining the reason for his afflic- 
tions. Each, according to his point of 
view, tells him that sin is the cause of all 
misfortune in life, and that he must have 
sinned grievously to be thus visited by 
God's anger. Job cannot understand 
this. He never believed he was a per- 
fect man; but if God is all-powerful, 
why does he not pardon his sin, so that 
he may pass into " the land of darkness 
and of the shadow of death " with some 
little of comfort to himself? One of 
[29] 



THE PLEASURE OR 

his friends thereupon asks him: '' Canst 
thou by searching find out God? Canst 
thou find out the Almighty unto perfec- 
tion?" And he advises him to be good 
and of faith in God: 

" If thou set thine heart aright. 

And stretch out thine hands toward Him; 

If iniquity he in thine hand, put it far away. 

And let no unrighteousness dwell in thy tents; 

Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face with- 
out spot; 

Yea, thou shalt he steadfast, and shalt not 
fearr 

Job answers: " No doubt but ye are the 
people, and wdsdom shall die with you. 
But I have understanding as well as you ; 
I am not inferior to you . . . The 
tents of the robbers prosper, and they 
that provoke God are secure. Why does 
God permit these things? Why should 
evil succeed and good be punished? " He 
[30] 



READING THE BIBLE 

tries to find the meaning in this seeming 
paradox, and is driven along two lines of 
thought. Either God's world is void of 
meaning, a world in which evil must tri- 
umph ; or it may be that all things will be 
righted in a world to come, in a future 
life. Either way, however, does not com- 
fort Job, because he is consumed by a pas- 
sionate desire to vindicate himself now, 
w^hile he is yet in the flesh, before the peo- 
ple he knew in the days of his prosperity 
who have falsely interpreted the cause of 
his degradation. In a series of remark- 
ably dramatic speeches the argument is 
taken up by each of the actors in turn, 
until God Himself, as a Voice out of the 
whirlwind, interrupts the speakers and, 
in a poem of magnificent grandeur, hum- 
bles Job to the very dust. Then does 
Job realize that true wisdom is not to be 
found in knowledge but in faith. When 
[31] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

he has realized this in its fulness he is 
able to say, '' Though he slay me, yet will 
I trust him.'' But he comes to this wis- 
dom only after he has been shown that 
the mystery of evil is but the least of the 
mysteries of the universe. The Divine 
argument is so wonderfully embodied 
that Job is overwhelmed, and can but 
brokenly cry: " I know that thou canst 
do all things, and that no purpose of 
thine can be restrained . . . There- 
fore have I uttered that which I under- 
stood not, things too wonderful for me, 
which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, 
and I will speak . • . I had heard of 
thee by the hearing of the ear; but now 
mine eye seeth thee: wherefore, I abhor 
myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 

Here is a portion of the Divine Argu- 
ment by which God revealed Himself to 
Job and brought him to a sense of the 
[32] 



READING THE BIBLE 

profound and purifying humility of ig- 
norance that leads him to faith: 

" Where wast thou when I laid the foundations 

of the earth? 
Declare, if thou hast understandings 
Who determined the measures thereof, if thou 

Jcnowest? 
Or who stretched the line upon it? 
Whereupon were the foundations thereof 

fastened? 
Or who laid the cornerstone thereof. 
When the morning stars sang together. 
And all the sons of God shouted for joy? 

" Or who shut up the sea with doors, 
When it brake forth, as if newly born; 
When I made clouds the garment thereof. 
And thick darkness a swaddling-band for it. 
And marked out for it my bound. 
And set bars and doors, 
And said. Hitherto shalt thou come, but no 

further; 
And here shall thy proud waves be stayed? 

" Hast thou commanded the morning since thy 
days began, 
And caused the dayspring to know its place? 

[33] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? 
Or hast thou walked in the recesses of the 

deep? 
Have the portals of the grave been revealed 

unto thee? 
Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of 

death? 
Hast thou comprehended the earth in its 

breadth? 
Declare^ if thou knowest it all! 

" Where is the way to the dwelling place of 

light? 
And as for darkness, where is the place 

thereof. 
That thou shouldest take it to the bound 

thereof, 
And that thou shouldest discern the paths to 

the house thereof? 
Doubtless thou knowest, for thou wast then 

born. 
And the number of thy days is great! 

" Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, 
Or loose the bands of Orion? 
Canst thou lead forth the signs of the Zodiac 

in their season? 
Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train? 

[34] 



BEADING THE BIBLE 

Knotvest thou the ordinances of the heavens? 
Canst thou establish the dominion thereof in 
the earth? " 

Well, indeed, may Job have exclaimed : 
" What shall I answer thee? I lay mine 
hand upon my mouth." The argument 
is a sublime poem of a mighty execution. 
The creative genius of this poet has here 
never been surpassed. He may worthily 
take his place by the side of Homer, 
Dante and Milton. But the whole book 
is, indeed, one of the marvels of litera- 
ture. 

In Ecclesiasticus, one of the so-called 
Apocryphal books of the Bible, there is 
a little essay on Friendship which de- 
serves re-setting, even though the sub- 
ject has been dealt with by many writers 
since, from Bacon downwards. 

'' Sw^eet words," says this counsellor, 
"will multiply a man's friends; and a 
[35] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

fair-speaking tongue will multiply cour- 
tesies. Let those that are at peace with 
thee be many; but thy counsellors one of 
a thousand. If thou wouldest get thee 
a friend, get him by proving, and be not 
in haste to trust him. For there is a 
friend that is so far his own occasion, and 
he will not continue in the day of thy 
affliction. And there is a friend that 
turneth to enmity; and he will discover 
strife to thy reproach. And there is a 
friend that is a companion at the table, 
and he will not continue in the day of thy 
affliction; and in thy prosperity he will 
be as thyself, and will be bold over thy 
servants; if thou shalt be brought low, 
he will be against thee, and he will hide 
himself from thy face. Separate thyself 
from thine enemies; and beware of thy 
friends. A faithful friend is a strong 
defence; and he that hath found him 
[36] 



READING THE BIBLE 

hath found a treasure. There is nothing 
that can be taken in exchange for a faith- 
ful friend; and his excellency is beyond 
price. A faithful friend is a medicine of 
life; and they that fear the Lord shall 
find him. He that feareth the Lord di- 
recteth his friendship aright ; for as he is, 
so is his neighbour also." 

From Ecclesiastes I take the liberty 
to quote, in Professor Moulton's set- 
ting a portion of the twelfth chapter, 
which he entitles, '' The Coming of Evil 
Days":— 

*' Remember also thy Creator in the days of 
thy youth! 
Or ever the evil days come^ 
And the years draw nigh. 

When thou shalt say, I have no pleas- 
ure in them: 

" Or ever the sun. 

And the light. 
And the moon, 

[37] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

And the starsy 
Be darkened. 
And the clouds return after the rain: 

" In the days when the keepers of the house 

shall tremhUy 
And the strong men shall how themselves^ 
And the grinders cease because they are few. 
And those that look out of the windows he 

darkened, 
And the door shall he shut in the street; 

" When the sound of the grinding is low, 
And one shall rise up at the voice of a htrd; 
And all the daughters of music shall he 
hr ought low; 

'' Yea, they shall he afraid of that which is 
high, 
And terrors shall he in the way; 

" And the almond tree shall hlossom. 
And the grasshopper shall he a hurden^ 
And the caperherry shall hurst: 

" Because man goeth to his long home. 
And the mourners go ahout the streets: 

[38] 



READING THE BIBLE 

" Or ever the silver cord he loosed. 
Or the golden howl he hroken, 
Or the pitcher he hroken at the fountain, 
Or the wheel hroken at the cistern: 

** And the dust return to the earth. 
As it was; 
And the spirit return unto God 
Who gave it.'' 

The Preacher prefixes this beautifully 
sombre poem with a short exhortation 
written in prose as beautiful, and reveal- 
ing his kindly and sweet sympathy for 
the frailty of human nature and the 
evanescence of human life : 

'* Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant 
thing it is for the eyes to hehold the sun. Yea, 
if a man live many years, let him rejoice in them 
all; and remember the days of darkness, for 
they shall he many. All that cometh is vanity. 
Rejoice, young man, in thy youth, and walk 
in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of 
thine eyes: hut know then, that for all these 
things God will hring thee into judgement. 
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and 

[39] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

put away evil from thy -flesh: for youth and 
the prime of life are vanity.'*^ 

But this tone is not the prevaiHng tone 
of the Bible, which is one of splendid op- 
timism. Only serve the Lord and it shall 
be well with you — that is the keynote of 
the Hebrew Scriptures ; it is also its prac- 
tical value for life. Even Isaiah rejoices 
in this truth : 

" How beautiful upon the mountains are the 

feet of him 
That bringeth good tidings, that publisheth 

peace, 
That bringeth good tidings of good, that 

publisheth salvation: 
That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.'^ 

That is the secret revealed. Every- 
thing is beautiful, everything is right, 
everything is good, because God reigneth. 
From this fountain did Browning drink 
[40] 



READING THE BIBLE 

his joyous faith: '' God's in His heaven. 
All's right with the world." 

The lasting appeal in the New Testa- 
ment is made as the Gospel of Love. 
That is the revelation it brought to man- 
kind; and it has been embodied largely, 
not in poetry, but in prose. The prose, 
however, is of so excellent a quality that 
its words have passed into our current 
speech; so that if we use them even care- 
lessly they have yet an arresting power to 
make us pause and give us thought. The 
Sermon on the Mount and the thirteenth 
chapter of the first epistle to the Corin- 
thians are together the finest flowers of 
speech containing this gospel. The ser- 
mon, however, is expressed in the lan- 
guage as of one in authority; the epistle 
is argumentative and persuasive. Christ 
spoke to eager listeners; Paul wrote to 
cultured thinkers. Yet when Paul comes 
[41] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

to the subject of love he rises to finely 
moving eloquence: 

" If I speak with the tongue of men and 
angelsy^* he says, *' but have not love^ I am be- 
come sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know 
all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have 
all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have 
not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my 
goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body 
to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me 
nothing. Love suffereth long, and is kind; 
love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not 
puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not 
account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteous- 
ness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all 
things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things. Love never faileth: but 
whether there be prophecies, they shall be done 
away; whether there be tongues, they shall 
cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be 
done away. For we know in part, and we 
prophesy in part: but when that which is per- 
fect is come, that which is in part shall be done 
away. When I was a child I spoke as a child, 

[42] 



READING THE BIBLE 

I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that 
I am become a man, I have put away childish 
things. For now we see in a mirror darkly; 
hut then face to face: now I know in part; hut 
then I shall know even also as I have heen 
known. But now ahideth faith, hope, love, 
these three; and the greatest of these is love.'' 



It is not possible to read this language 
senseless to the power of words. The 
magical art of the writer is almost a piece 
of wizardry. He rings the changes on 
the word, turning it this way and that 
way, until the mind of the reader has ex- 
hausted its own experiences in following 
the writer's argument. And after the 
kaleidoscope has been turned in every di- 
rection, the final appeal is made to the 
personal emotion; but so deftly made that 
the reader is not conscious of having been 
led to a conviction, but believes he has 
brought himself to it. And yet the con- 
[43] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

viction would be worth little were there 
no response in the reader's heart to the 
truth; were there no possibility of the re- 
lation between him and the ideal pre- 
sented to him. It is because of this pos- 
sibility that Paul's epistle will be read so 
long as men shall walk the earth. It be- 
longs, with the rest of the Bible, to that 
body of work of the creative imagination 
which in song, oration, romance and story, 
has attempted to spell the experiences of 
life in the language of beauty, and given 
to striving and travailing men and women 
a joyous hope in each to-morrow in the 
happiness of each to-day. For literature 
is less than life; it is not our master, but 
our servant. The gods well know how 
profoundly and pathetically we still need 
the help. 

I have tried, in as few words as I could 
express it, to show that the Bible, taking 
[44] 



BEADING THE BIBLE 

it as literature only, may be read for the 
pleasure it affords. I have tried to em- 
phasize fruitfully the purity of that 
pleasure, leading as it does, to the culti- 
vation of our sense of beauty in lan- 
guage and thought; and to an awareness 
of beauty in all things. I have done this, 
in the first place, because I believe there 
is no one book, in all the literatures 
of the world, that so amply and so 
bravely searches all that can affect our 
minds and hearts. It is a panorama of 
life in action, of the struggle of man 
against nature and himself and of his 
reconciliation with nature and himself; 
it is a pageant of the progress of peoples 
to the making of nations ; it is a body of 
poetry and prose singing of the joy of 
living for life's sake, and the joy of lov- 
ing for all sakes. It is, finally, the rec- 
ord in imperishable speech of the dis- 
[45] 



THE PLEASURE OF 

covery of how man redeemed himself 
by achieving an ideal. 

In the second place, it has seemed to 
me proper to do this, in order that I 
might help to reinstate the Bible in its 
rightful place. It has too long been al- 
lowed to rest, in lordly isolation, to be 
guarded by augurs from the common 
touch, as if it required interpreters to ex- 
plain its hidden secrets. The Bible will 
never be known after this fashion. 
There are no secrets in it that any true 
heart cannot know. There is nothing to 
explain. It is a book to take by the hand; 
to turn to in hours of joy; to look to in 
times of sorrow; and to accept at all 
times as the sincere efforts of men and 
women like ourselves toward perfection. 
Above all, it is a book to be happy vdth. 

^^ Behold, I stand at the door and hnocic: if 
any man hear my voice and open the door, I 

[46] 



READING THE BIBLE 

will come in to him, and will sup with him, and 
he with me, I am the Alpha and the Omega, 
the beginning and the end, I will give unto 
Mm that is athirst of the fountain of the water 
of life freely. And the Spirit and the bride 
say. Come, And he that heareth, let him say. 
Come, And he that is athirst, let him come: 
and whosoever will, let him take the water of 
life freely,'' 



[47] 



^ m^t of poolksf for Ptble i^eatimg 



THE BIBLE. (Authorized Version) 

The Oxford University Press publish Helps to the Study of the 
Bible with one of its editions of the Revised Version. This may be 
bought separately, and will be found to be of great assistance to the 
student. 

THE MODERN READER'S BIBLE, presented in literary 

form. Edited by Richard G. Moulton. 
LITERARY STUDY OP THE BIBLE. By Richard G. 

Moulton. 

Professor Moulton^s book is unquestionably the best book in the 
language for the literary study of the Bible. I cannot recommend it 
too highly. In The Modern Reader's Bible will be found notes, 
historical introduction, and literary introduction, which the student 
will do well to read. Professor Moulton has also issued a Shx/rt 
Introduction to the Literature of the Bible. The essential matter of 
both these books, however, will be found contained in the appen- 
dices to his The Modem Reader's BU>le (one vol. edit.). 

INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERATURE OF THE OLD 

TESTAMENT. By S. R. Driver. 
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF THE NEW 

TESTAMENT. By B. W. Bacon. 
OUTLINES FOR THE STUDY OF BIBLICAL HISTORY 

AND LITERATURE. By F. H. Sanders and H. T. 

Fowler. 

BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION. By W. H. Bennett and W. 
F. Adeney. 

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ISAIAH. By T. K. 

Oheyne. 



HISTORY OF THE JEWISH OHUROH. By A. P. Stanley. 

Stanley's work is not now considered the most authoritative, since 
it does not include the results of the latest researches; but it is, 
nevertheless, a delightful book, and is written in a captivating style. 
His shortcomings could easily be supplemented from Basting's 
Bible Dictionary. 

HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL By Ernest 

Re nan. 
HISTORY OF NEW TESTAMENT TIMES. By Sbailer 

Mathews, 

TRADITIONS AND BELIEFS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL. 

By T. K. Oheyne. 
BIBLE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. By J. H. Gardiner. 
BIBLE DICTIONARY. By James Hastings and others. 
THE LITERARY MAN'S BIBLE. By W. L. Courtney. 

The author does not treat the Bible as a religious book. He con- 
siders it as a storehouse of literature. He gives extracts to illustrate 
the history, the poetry and the fiction it contains, and adds prefatory 
remarks to each. 

THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE. By Samuel 
McOomb, D.D. 

A concise account of the English Bible from the time of its trans- 
lation to the last revision. 

THE SOUL OF THE BIBLE. Being Selections from the 
Old and the New Testaments and the Apocrypha, Ar- 
ranged as Synthetical Readings. Edited by Ulysses E. 
B. Pierce. 

LECTURES ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLE TO THE CORIN- 
THIANS. By P. W. Robertson. 

GENERAL VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH 
BIBLE. By B. F. Westcott. 

SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH. 
By Julius Wellhausen. 

GOSPEL OF JOY. By Rev. Stopford A. Brooke. 

CHRISTIIN MODERN LIFE. By Rev. Stopford A. Brooke. 

I include these two volumes of sermons not because they are 
necessary to the literary study of the Bible, but in order that my 
readers may see how a literary man extracts the value of life from 
the thoughts and examples the Bible furnishes him. Mr. Brooke^a 
Sermons are among the best expressions he has given us. 



OCT 25 1909 



OCT 25 1909 



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